Page 8 of In The Trenches (Owens Protective Services)

“I can handle it.”

“What I meant was, do you have the men to spare for as long as this could take?”

“Don’t worry about that. You get her out here and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“We’ll need to keep this quiet. If he catches wind of my guys heading out to you, we’re screwed.”

“He’ll definitely be keeping tabs on you.” Sebastian sighed heavily on the other end. “Send her with Sinner.”

“You’re sure? I got the feeling the two of you didn’t part on the best of terms.”

“This is business, and goes beyond any reasons I may have had for letting him go.”

I was so damn curious, I couldn’t help myself. “He’s been training with us for a few weeks. He’s good. Really damn good. Why exactly did you let him go?”

When he didn’t answer immediately, I didn’t think he ever would, but then he surprised me. “You know he was Special Forces, and his skills speak to just how good he is. Trust that.”

And then he hung up. Whatever happened between them, I might never know. But I did trust what I saw when Sinner was training, and that was all I needed to know. I headed back to the conference room where Eli was still planning with his team.

“Okay, we’re going ahead with the mission as planned,” I said as I walked back into the room. “The outcome has changed, though. It seems Victor has a few enemies that want to use Vanessa as a bargaining chip—Vanessa in exchange for a business deal. We don’t have the specifics at this moment, so I don’t know how accurate this information is. We’re going to go ahead with locating Vanessa, but when we find her, Mark will deliver her back to Sebastian at Reed Security where he’ll take over protection services. In case we’re being watched, we’ll have to have a female agent on standby to fill in for Vanessa so we can get her out of here safely. Any questions?”

“Will I be taking her by myself?”

“At this time, we think that’s the best option. We need to keep it low key. We may add one member to the detail, but we need to see what we’re up against first. I’ll have a packet put together for you by midday. Why don’t you head home and pack a bag. If she’s where we think, you won’t have time to pack. I’ll have an SUV loaded when you get back.”

“Sounds good.”

* * *

“SendRed and Kavanaugh over to the friend’s apartment to keep an eye out. As soon as Mark’s back, I’ll send the two of you over to her place to pick her up. You make sure there’s no interference and that they get out clean.”

“Got it,” Eli responded.

We walked quickly back to my office. This whole thing was making me uneasy. If we got Sinner away, we might just get out of this clusterfuck without any problems, but the sinking feeling in my gut said things weren’t going to be as smooth as I hoped.

“Are we sure that Reed Security can handle her protection?” Eli asked.

“If Sinner didn’t think they could, he would have said so.”

I jerked my chin at Eli to close the door. Walking around my desk, I took my seat and started putting together the packet for Sinner.

“Still, why is he out here? You’ve seen his skills. Why would Reed let him go?”

“That I don’t know, and frankly, it doesn’t matter at this point.”

“Unless there’s something neither of them are telling us,” he said suspiciously.

“I get the feeling that it’s a personal issue. Reed said he was good. We’ve seen that Sinner can handle shit. Frankly, as long as he’s not a traitor, I don’t see any reason to dig into him leaving Reed Security.”

“But hasn’t it bothered you from the moment you interviewed him?”

I sighed heavily, rubbing at my face. “No, it hasn’t. I told you I talked with his former team leader. Let it go. Right now we have a job to focus on. Go get the SUV loaded for him.”

He nodded and turned for the door.

“Eli.” He turned back to me. “You have to trust the people you work with. I know that’s hard for you, but I wouldn’t put someone on your team if I thought he couldn’t be trusted.”

With a swift nod, he opened the door and headed out. I stared down at the paperwork I was putting together and remembered when Eli first came to me. I was just starting up OPS and looking for recruits. He didn’t exactly trust me, but that wasn’t shocking considering someone on his own team turned on the rest of them. It took forever for us to gain his trust, and I knew that while his head understood that Sinner was an asset, Eli wasn’t sure of his instincts anymore.

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